We’re in the middle of a U.S. presidential election cycle so perhaps a warning that polling data can be manipulated to state whatever you’d like is a needless screech, but there’s new reason to suggest that the Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t the most hated team in the NHL.
Toronto and its legions of fans are often widely detested by opposing fan bases and with the team’s institutional resources, travelling fans, along with duelling inferiority and superiority complexes, there’s a natural inclination for other fan bases to detest the Buds. Perhaps the Maple Leafs’ eight consecutive early playoff exits have engendered some sympathy across the league.
In a poll that invited fans to vote on 34,000 head-to-head NHL matchups, with each team voted upon roughly 2,170 times, Toronto ranked as the 24th most-liked team in the poll, with voters rooting for the Maple Leafs 42.2 percent of the time. Toronto slotted right behind the New York Islanders, who earned a 42.8 percent share of votes.
It’s a bit surprising, given that it’s become the rote, standard position that the Maple Leafs are considered the enemy of all hockey fans outside of the Greater Toronto Area, but the league and its rooting interests have evolved. Vegas is the least-liked team in the NHL via JFresh’s poll entrants, earning 33.1 percent of the vote, while the high-flying Colorado Avalanche are the most liked team in the NHL, earning a whopping 67.9 percent of all votes.
What do you make of the results? It’s evident that the Maple Leafs aren’t the most popular team among rival fan bases, but other teams’ histories of winning, combined with some sordid off-the-ice behaviour, have resulted in increased vitriol. It does seem a bit surprising that the Maple Leafs would be favoured against the Bruins by most neutrals and perhaps we’ll have to wait until next summer for another edition of this bitter Atlantic Division rivalry to unfold.
